As readers of this blog know, I am advocate of establishing a single national day dedicated to emergency preparedness.Â I believe that it would be very useful to have a specific time each year in which the entire nation focuses on this challenging and sensitive subject.
This day would be the time that we developed and practiced [...]

As the U.S. marks the ninth anniversary of 9/11, I wanted to post some ideas that I think would help raise citizen preparedness and engagement. The recommendations come from discussions that I have had with people involved in all aspects of the issue, my own experiences as a parent and CERT member in New York [...]

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate interviewed earlier today on “Good Morning America” (below) warned residents of the eastern seaboard to “make sure you have a plan today, You may not have time later on this week if the storm moves in your direction.”
He told Robin Roberts that people who live in evacuation zones need to plan [...]

With the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) recently unveiling the redesign of itsÂ FEMA.Gov website,Â I asked Administrator Craig Fugate if he would explain why the agency undertook the overhaul.
In the brief video (below), Fugate says FEMA wanted to make the site more focused on helping the public in answer the following questions: “How do I prepare? [...]

In a speech to the Red Cross’s Emergency Crisis Data Summit last week, FEMA head Craig Fugate focused his remarks on the role of technology in disaster preparedness and response. However, he touched on another important theme which I wanted to highlight — that Americans have a personal and societal responsibility to be prepared for [...]

In a memo to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate this week, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered a “two-year progressive national drilling program whichÂ increases the total number of exercises andÂ culminates in a full-scale, biennial intergovernmental National Level Exercise (NLE).”
Thanks to Bill Cumming for sending me the memo; he will be writing about it on his Vacation Lane [...]

Last week, I visited the three-member Ready Campaign team — Director Darryl Madden, Deputy Director Rebecca Marquis, and Campaign Specialist Chris BernsteinÂ – at FEMA headquarters to get a briefing on the 7th annualÂ National Preparedness Month (NPM) which begins in less than two weeks.
NPM,Â sponsored by the Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps and the Ad [...]

In response to a question from the audience at the Red Cross Emergency Social Data Summit last week,Â Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate mentioned that the agency is doing some serious rethinking about the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program as it approaches its 25th Anniversary.
The questioner urged Fugate to move CERT from [...]

President Obama and his family travelled to the Gulf Coast on Saturday to take a dip in support of the area’s recovery from the oil spill disaster. The willingness of the swimmer-in-chief to jump in literally and figuratively and even take his family in sent a strong message, amplified by the huge media coverage, to [...]

After his well-received speech to the American Red Cross’ “Emergency Social Data Summit” yesterday, I had a chance to interview FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.
I asked him about the role of social media in disasters, how he has benefited from having (and tweeting on) his own Twitter account, and what he wants to accomplish during the [...]